Local residents sue over World Trade Center security plan

A group of Lower Manhattan residents have alleged they are prisoners among the extensive security implemented around the World Trade Center site.

A lawsuit filed today in the Manhattan state Supreme Court accuses the property’s operator, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, as well as the city and the New York Police Department of going too far with its $40 million security operation. The NYPD’s post-construction plan for the 16-acre site — which houses multiple office towers and the 9/11 memorial — calls for guard booths, fencing, checkpoints and gates that has made it challenging for residents and tourists to navigate the neighborhood, the suit said.

Once construction is done, there will be only four ways to enter and five ways to exit the 16-acre site on foot, according to the Associated Press.

“The police seem to be doing everything for the tourists at the expense of the community,” resident Mary Perillo, head of the WTC Neighborhood Alliance and one of the plaintiffs, told radio station WCBS in November. [Associated Press] — Mark Maurer